‎Argo (2012) directed by Ben Affleck • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd 26 This is Ben Affleck's film all the way and I have to say I am more than impressed. I'm glad that he seems to have discovered what he is really good at. As an actor he was never really convincing. And even though he gives a great understated, albeit a bit one-note, performance here, it is in the director's chair where he excels. This bizarre 'truth is stranger than fiction' tale has all the hallmarks of being turned into an over-stylized and over-dramatized political thriller. This is anything but that. Much like his performance, Affleck decided to take away the frills, leaving behind a film that is reminiscent of the political thrillers of yesteryear. Solid, made with craftsmanship and more… 26 Argo, the true life story you couldn’t make up, was always ripe for the Hollywood treatment and for the most part Affleck and co. do a good job of bringing it to the screen.

Most should be familiar with the plot by now but if not it revolves around a CIA operation to get American diplomats out of Iran during the revolution. Their cover is an audacious and implausible recce scouting for film locations for a crappy space opera movie. It is easy to see what would attract somebody like Ben Affleck to this project, it has a current political resonance, Hollywood satire and an old fashioned thriller element driving the story forward. Affleck does a commendable job juggling many… 4 From gossip-rag pin-up to powerhouse director Ben Affleck has one of the most chequered careers in Hollywood. Channelling experience following his previous two features, tightly wound action thrillers Gone Baby Gone and The Town, his time behind the camera is proving most fruitful. His recounting of the true life story of Argo is no exception and further authorises his position as a meaningful director. Set in late ‘70s Iran, amidst a violent revolution, a group of CIA operatives strive to rescue six of its US embassy officials who are trapped within the dangerous melting pot.

Under the innovative guise of a Canadian film crew scouting locations for an artificial sci-fi flick, exfiltration expert Tony Mendez infiltrates the city’s capital Tehran… 4 Winner of 3 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Argo is Ben Affleck's finest work as a director, is one of the best films of its year & is quite an accomplished piece of storytelling that expertly recounts the real-life event that took place in Iran during the Iranian Revolution in which 6 US diplomats were rescued by CIA with the help of Canadian government. Set in 1979 Iran, the story of Argo follows 6 US diplomats who go into hiding when Iranian revolutionaries invade the American embassy in Tehran, taking several of them hostages. In an effort to get its people out of the country, CIA goes through various options & eventually settles with an insane plan; to arrive in Iran for… Review by CoachKaye42 ★★★★★ Welcome to the conclusion of my Ben Affleck retrospective, where I've taken a look at all of his directorial efforts, including his latest feature Live By Night.

As you guys can tell by these reviews, I'm a huge fan of Affleck as a director, and of course, the very next project he has lined up after Live By Night is in fact The Batman. In this editorial, I'll be identifying the top 4 things I want to see in that movie, based on his previous directorial efforts. Before we proceed, for those of you who are wondering why I haven't reviewed Argo, that's because I covered that movie already back in March in preparation for Batman V Superman. With that… Review by Dave Imboden ★★★½ Blurs the line between fact & fiction almost immediately with storyboards bleeding into historical photojournalism during the opening sequence; Affleck veers even further into artifice with a completely fabricated airport runway chase in the third act. It's pretty clear ARGO has no actual interest in the Iranian Revolution beyond using it as a plot device/backdrop for a crackling spy thriller, so I'm not sure what the ultimate point is beyond some facile themes about the government & the movie business being equally dense with bureaucratic idiocy ("You could teach a rhesus monkey to direct!" cracks John Goodman as Affleck cuts to himself looking dumbfounded).

Politically icky, maybe, but still entertaining as hell. The alternate title could be HOW WHITE HOLLYWOOD SAVED THE… ‘Argo,’ Directed by Ben Affleck - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |Outwitting the Ayatollah With Hollywood’s Help Search Outwitting the Ayatollah With Hollywood’s Help ‘Argo,’ Directed by Ben Affleck Argo Photo Ben Affleck in "Argo," which he also directed. Credit Warner Brothers Pictures At one point in “Argo,” a smart, jittery thriller about a freakish and little-known chapter of the Iranian hostage crisis , a Hollywood producer says that history starts as farce and ends up as tragedy. He seems, as someone rightly points out, to have it backward. But as a professional dissembler, he knows better. Because much like the revolutionary shock troops who seized the United States embassy on Nov. 4, 1979, and turned the crisis into gripping political theater watched by the entire world — tune in tomorrow when America goes on trial, with the special guest star the Ayatollah Khomeini — the producer knows that historical events alone don’t cut it. You need lights, camera, action.

Turning history into farce probably wasn’t what Antonio J. Mendez, a Central Intelligence Agency officer, was after when he was tapped to help free six State Department employees stranded in Tehran. While revolutionary forces were overrunning the embassy and taking hostages, including the 52 men and women who were held for 444 days, five Americans fled undetected. Eventually, they made their way to safety, including at the Canadian ambassador’s house, staying hidden (with a sixth escapee) while the C.I.A., the State Department and the president struggled to find a way to ferry them home. Mr. Mendez, a wizard of disguise, came up with the cover story for the six escapees that improbably stuck: They would pose as a Canadian movie crew. Video embed It’s a doozy of a story and so borderline ridiculous that it sounds — ta-da! — like something that could have been cooked up only by Hollywood. Ben Affleck , however, who directed “Argo” from a script by Chris Terrio and cast himself in the pivotal role of Tony Mendez, realized that comedy alone wouldn’t do.

American lives, after all, were at stake (a situation that contemporary viewers will be all too familiar with), and so, after opening the movie with a bit of history and archival imagery, he rushes into the moment’s jarring, unsettling craziness with a cinematic whoosh. Fast and faster, he sets the skittish stage with convincing you-are-there re-creations and then jumps back and forth between the chanting, exultant Iranian protesters outside the embassy and the freaked-out Americans inside it. Mr. Affleck, working from Mr. Mendez’s book, “The Master of Disguise,” and a 2007 Wired magazine article, “The Great Escape,” by the journalist Joshuah Bearman, embellishes the official story without eviscerating it. Given how great the very premise is, it makes sense to stick more or less to the official record — a series of photographs from the hostage crisis that is juxtaposed with stills from the movie show how close Mr. Affleck hews to the evidence — and he and his production team clearly had fun with the Chia Pet facial hair, oversize glasses, wide collars, fat ties and earth-toned threads.

Shrewdly, he visually transmits the escalating claustrophobia of the escapees’ confinement with billowing cigarette smoke, small rooms, a limited palette and shallow depth of field. Better yet, after setting your pulse racing, he smoothly downshifts, easing from the high anxiety of the opener — which evokes 1970s political thrillers like Sydney Pollack’s “Three Days of the Condor” — into something looser, mellower and funny. After Mendez spitballs escape plans with his bosses (including an amusing Bryan Cranston , popping neck tendons), he receives the green light to go Hollywood. To make the movie idea work, he flies to Los Angeles, where he brings in an old colleague, John Chambers ( John Goodman , breezy and reined in), a real makeup artist who received an honorary Oscar for “Planet of the Apes.” Next on board is a dyspeptically seasoned producer, Lester Siegel (a wonderful Alan Arkin ), who helps make the fake project, now a science-fiction flick called “Argo,” look legit.

Video Yesterday’s Hostages; Today’s Iran Several of the Americans who were held by Iran between 1979 and 1981 reflect on tensions between that country and the United States and how their ordeal affects today’s crisis. By Rob Harris on Publish Date April 12, 2012. Photo by Fred Conrad/The New York Times|Associated Press|UPI|Getty Images. Watch in Times Video » embed The Hollywood angle brings lightness and levity into the movie, serving as comic relief that Mr. Affleck uses contrapuntally with the increasingly tense, perilous situation in Tehran. The scenes of Mendez swanning through Los Angeles, across a rooftop party at the Beverly Hilton and a studio lot, where Chambers and Siegel set up shop, are enjoyably preposterous. Then again, as the Hollywood veterans knowingly observe, there is a certain kinship between the spectacle they’re putting on and the really big show the Iranian revolutionaries have staged.

Budget aside, it comes down to selling the story and the roles persuasively, which the escapees — nicely played by Clea DuVall, Tate Donovan, Scoot McNairy, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham and Kerry Bishé — soon learn. Mr. Affleck handles his own roles, on camera and behind it, with a noticeable lack of self-aggrandizement. He doesn’t show off with his direction or the performances, going for detail instead of bombast with eerie silences, traded glances, trembling gestures and beaded sweat. (It’s a good guess that he’s committed the unnerving opening of “Three Days of the Condor” to memory.) His own delivery can be so tamped down that he sometimes registers as overly restrained, almost bland, yet his control serves the material, partly because it would have been a mistake for him to try to upstage this story, much less Mr. Goodman and Mr. Arkin. And then, in the end, this is a story about outwitting rather than killing the enemy, making it a homage to actual intelligence and an example of the same. “Argo” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian).

For language and revolutionary fervor. Argo Writers Chris Terrio, Tony Mendez, Joshuah Bearman Stars Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman Rating R 4 out of 5 stars Time Out says 4 out of 5 stars It’s a little-known fact that Ben Affleck – celebrity totty, tabloid bait and esteemed filmmaker – has a degree in Middle Eastern affairs from the University of Vermont. It’s a qualification he puts to good use in ‘Argo’, a nail-biting thriller based (fairly loosely) on real events which, for the majority of its length, manages to avoid the expected Hollywood clichés about the Middle East and promote a balanced view of America’s dealings with that troubled region. It’s 1979, and after the fall of the Shah supporters of the new Islamic rulers of Iran have laid siege to the US embassy, demanding the return of their former leader for trial. But six embassy employees have escaped, and are hiding out in the home of the Canadian ambassador.

Enter Tony Mendez (Affleck) a CIA exfiltration expert with a crafty if bizarre plan: posing as a film producer – complete with sci-fi script, production sketches and an ad in Variety – he’ll smuggle the six back to safety. For 100 minutes, ‘Argo’ is close to flawless. Unashamedly modelling his directorial style on the stark, serious ’70s thrillers of Alan J Pakula and Sidney Lumet, Affleck cranks up the tension expertly. The script is witty and insightful, contrasting US and Iranian popular reactions to the crisis: it’s ‘Death to America’ versus ‘Ayatollah Assaholla’. There’s not enough attention paid to character development – Mendez, in particular, never comes into sharp focus – but that was true in the Pakula/Lumet films, too, and it’s mitigated by a superb cast, notably Alan Arkin as an irascible Hollywood old-hand.

But the film’s most abiding pleasure lies in the period detail: using multiple film stocks and reportedly blowing up some of the 35mm footage for a grainier texture, Affleck achieves the look, feel, and almost smell of the late 1970s. From the opening, old-school Warner Bros logo – snatched from a crackly ’70s print – to the closing montage of real photos of the hostages, there’s a commitment to minutiae which enriches the experience beyond measure. So it’s a shame that Affleck bottles it in the home stretch, bowing to the demands of the multiplex to offer a frankly idiotic action-packed climax, and ending on a note of odious sentimentality. It’s almost enough to erase what’s gone before – but that would be to undervalue the remarkable skill, intelligence and craft that have gone into this oh-so-nearly brilliant political potboiler. By: Tom Huddleston 4 out of 5 stars Average User Rating Argo (2012) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This!

Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1980. Director: Ben Affleck Writers: Chris Terrio (screenplay), Tony Mendez (based on a selection from "The Master of Disguise" by) (as Antonio J.

Mendez) | 1 more credit » Stars: Efm: WestEnd boards Chris Messina, Abigail Spencer comedy 17 January 2017 2:16 AM, -08:00 | ScreenDaily a list of 25 titles created 07 Jun 2012 a list of 32 titles created 12 May 2013 a list of 23 titles created 08 Jan 2014 a list of 33 titles created 9 months ago a list of 23 titles created 8 months ago Search for " Argo " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 3 Oscars. Another 92 wins & 150 nominations.

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Director: Ang Lee Edit Storyline In 1979, the American embassy in Iran was invaded by Iranian revolutionaries and several Americans were taken hostage. However, six managed to escape to the official residence of the Canadian Ambassador and the CIA was ordered to get them out of the country. With few options, exfiltration expert Tony Mendez devised a daring plan: create a phony Canadian film project looking to shoot in Iran and smuggle the Americans out as its production crew. With the help of some trusted Hollywood contacts, Mendez created the ruse and proceeded to Iran as its associate producer. However, time was running out with the Iranian security forces closing in on the truth while both his charges and the White House had grave doubts about the operation themselves.

Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com) Based on the Declassified True Story See more » Genres: Rated R for language and some violent images | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 12 October 2012 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Escape from Tehran See more » Filming Locations: $19,458,109 (USA) (12 October 2012) Gross: Did You Know? Trivia The first film directed by Ben Affleck not to be set in his hometown of Boston. See more » Goofs The long shot of an airliner taking off from Dulles Airport for London shows a twin-engine jet, and these were not generally approved for use on transatlantic flights until 1985. See more » Quotes [first lines] Sahar : [narration] This is the Persian Empire known today as Iran. For 2,500 years, this land was ruled by a series of kings, known as shahs. In 1950, the people of Iran elected Mohammad Mossadeqh, a secular democrat, as Prime Minister. He nationalized British and U.S.

petroleum holdings, returning Iran's oil to it's people. But in 1953, the U.S. and Great Britain engineered a coup d'etat that deposed Mossadeqh and installed Reza Pahlavi as shah. The young Shah was known for opulence and ... See more » Crazy Credits Past the photos of cast members and the real people they play, there's audio from an interview with then-President Jimmy Carter talking about the crisis. See more » Connections Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp. By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing A Tight, Suspenseful Dramatization of the Canadian Caper 22 June 2013 | by brando647 (Spring Hill, FL) – See all my reviews I'm admittedly pretty late to the Ben Affleck/director bandwagon. His first film, GONE BABY GONE, went under my radar and I passed on THE TOWN because I wasn't interested in another heist film. He's been collecting praise for his directing efforts for years but it wasn't until ARGO that I actually sat down and watched one of his movies.

The premise was one that had grabbed my attention since originally reading about the Canadian Caper in an article on Cracked.com. The movie is based on actual events, but I'm not knowledgeable enough in subject to tell you what's accurate and what isn't. So it's safe to say that I watched this as a movie for entertainment and not as a propaganda piece for America or the CIA, as some have appeared to view it. ARGO is the tale of six staff members for the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran during a tumultuous time in which citizens of the country were rioting over the United States' involvement in providing asylum for the former Iranian Shah while he sought treatment for cancer. The riots soon grow out of hand and enraged Iranian civilians overrun the embassy, taking its staff of 52 hostage. Six Americans escaped during the fray and find sanctuary with the Canadian ambassador in his home. The clock is ticking and the U.S. is worried that the Iranians will discover the escapees, so the CIA becomes involved in forming a plan to retrieve them. Enter CIA agent Tony Mendez (Affleck) with a plan to enter Iran and walk the Americans right out through a commercial airport under the guise of a location scout for a Canadian film crew.

It's one of those "so crazy, it has to work" scenarios. ARGO is good. Best Picture good? Maybe. There might have been more deserving movies in 2012 but I don't feel that ARGO ruined any lives by walking away with the award. It's an incredibly good film that manages to grab its audience on an emotional level, and it tells an amazing story. Regardless of how it's portrayed in the film, the events depicted in the movie happened in one sense of another: the Iranians raged at the United States, 52 embassy staff were taken as hostages for a grueling 444 days, and six escapees were aided in escaping the country as a Canadian film crew. That alone is an incredible tale. This is Ben Affleck's vision of the events and, yes, they are very America-centric. You sort of have to expect that from an American film. Once you overlook that and just absorb ARGO as a piece of entertainment, it succeeds. Affleck does an excellent job of ratcheting up the suspense in the film. These characters are in a dangerously tight spot and you feel for them. They're terrified, paranoid, and never know if the next day will be their last.

There is a scene in the middle of the movie where Mendez, in an effort to solidify their cover story, must take the six escapees into Tehran's bazaar where all eyes are on them after a few mere hours to try and learn their false identities. It's tense. Even knowing that everything turns out all right in the end, it's tense. I'd say that makes for a successful film. I also loved the alternating vibes of the film. The scenes in Iran are taut and ominous. We're treated to multiple scenes emphasizing the rampant anti-American sentiment and the dangerous conditions. The scenes in Hollywood are loud and boisterous, with mansions, glamorous parties, and a soundtrack including Van Halen and the Dire Straits. The only instance of Western music once we're in Iran is an excellent use of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks", used perfectly to reflect the tension as the American's celebrate the night before their big escape while Mendez is confronted with the possibility of abandoning the mission and leaving them behind.

Back in America, everything is a bit more light-hearted with John Goodman and Alan Arkin portraying the Hollywood connections that helped Mendez create a fake movie from scratch and pass it off as a legitimate venture to fool the Iranians. Goodman and Arkin are a couple of scene-stealers and provide a bit of levity to break up the gloom of the Iranian situation. If I have any complaint about the movie, I guess it would be that I was underwhelmed with the ending. The big climactic scene in Iranian airport where the Americans are within reach of freedom is a little too forced. The cuts between the Mendez and the escapees, the Iranian police, and the CIA offices felt as if they were trying a bit too hard to make it suspenseful. Still, I suppose it got the job done. ARGO is a fine movie and probably ranks somewhere in my top ten best for 2012. 4 of 5 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Movie Review – Argo (2012) Movie Review – Argo (2012) Argo, 2012. Directed by Ben Affleck.

Starring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Taylor Schilling, Kyle Chandler, John Goodman, Zeljko Ivanek, Alan Arkin, Clea DuVall, Tate Donovan and Victor Garber. SYNOPSIS: A dramatization of the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran. It’s the 4th of November 1979, the Iranian revolution is in full swing and militants storm into the U.S Embassy in Tehran capturing fifty-two American citizens and taking them hostage. In the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of the Canadian Ambassador. Knowing that it will only be a matter of time before the six are found out and quite possibly captured and killed, both the Canadian and American governments ask the CIA to resolve their dilemma. The CIA need to find a way to get the six Americans out of the country quick sharp, which will be a near impossible task given the current political climate. Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) the CIA’s top “exfiltration” expert (specialist in getting people out of hostile situations) is called upon to give his opinion.

After hearing various ludicrous suggestions such as smuggling bikes into the country for the six to pedal unnoticed for several hundred miles to safety, Mendez comes up with an idea so implausible and outrageous that it can only happen in the movies. Mendez’s journey in Hollywood begins as he visits his friend John Chambers (John Goodman), who is a Hollywood master of prosthetics; his work had earned him an Academy Award in 1969 for his contribution to the make-up on the movie Planet of the Apes. Chambers agrees to help Mendez in his plan to rescue the six Americans along with Hollywood producer friend Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin). The plan is to make a fake movie, but in order to build a credible cover story they would have go about this task as if they were really going to make a Hollywood movie, which means finding a script that requires a Middle Eastern setting, create posters, storyboards, costumes, create some buzz in the papers… all the things you would do in pre-production. This would all culminate in Mendez, posing as an associate producer flying into Iran, giving false Canadian passports to the six Americans, claiming that they are scouting locations for a Canadian science-fiction movie, and then flying them out. Piece of cake!

One of things that makes Argo such a fascinating and riveting movie is the fact that this extraordinary series of events actually happened in real life. Even the screenwriter Chris Terrio, who brilliantly scripted this movie, bringing a genuine sense of humanity to the real life outrageous exploits of the CIA expert, said that if he had pitched this as an original concept to studio execs they would have told him that no audience would ever believe such a story. Equally as impressive is the prowess that Ben Affleck shows in helming such an intriguing story. Affleck manages to successfully portray the treacherous situation that the six American find themselves in with a gritty realism that really gives the audience a genuine sense of the perilous circumstances in Tehran; yet at the same time he effortlessly balances this drama with the right mix of dry wit, humour and glamour in the Hollywood scenes with Mendez attempting to bring this fake movie together. Watching the scenes in Iran and the interjecting Hollywood scenes is almost like watching two separate movies but Affleck manages to combine the two like a seasoned veteran.

Most of the humour is supplied by the superb John Goodman and Alan Arkin who have some of the best lines in the film such as “If I’m gonna make a fake movie, it’s gonna be a fake hit!” The chemistry between the two characters is excellent and provides a welcome relief from the tension in Iran. In Argo, Ben Affleck has managed to put together a great ensemble cast of stellar actors who may not be household names but are certainly one of the reasons Affleck has been able to produce such a masterpiece of filmmaking. Actors such as Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Tate Donavan (Damages) and Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights) all put in superb performances which add to the credibility of the storytelling. Even Affleck’s performance as Tony Mendez is a very low key, downbeat but powerful performance which really captures the CIA agent’s commitment, determination and dedication to his art of exfiltration. Probably the most compelling reason I feel Argo is such a great film and deserves the plaudits that it’s currently receiving is the “Ben Affleck story” which is nearly as unbelievable as the Argo story itself.

It was widely accepted only a few years ago that Ben Affleck’s Hollywood career was well and truly over after starring in a string of absolutely terrible movies such as Jersey Girl and Gigli to name a few. However after taking a brief hiatus he returned with his directorial debut in 2007’s Gone Baby Gone and just like Peter Parker after being bitten by a radioactive spider, he showcased his amazing and seemingly new found skills as a director and even had the foresight to stay behind the camera and leave the acting to his more than capable younger brother Casey Affleck. He then followed that up in 2010 with another masterpiece in filmmaking with The Town. Even with these two solid films under his belt it seems the media still weren’t really convinced Affleck could make that transition to serious director and perhaps the first two movies were a bit of luck. Granted they were both set in the familiar territory of his beloved home town of Boston, maybe that was his comfort zone? In helming Argo there was certainly no home court advantage, Ben Affleck stepped well beyond his comfort zone and picked a topic that few would believe he could handle with the elegance, grace and authenticity that he has shown in directing this film.

Affleck has unequivocally cemented his place in the Hollywood elite of the few successful actor/directors such as George Clooney, Clint Eastwood and Denzel Washington (not many people like to mention him but Antoine Fisher is a great movie!) Yes, a few cynics will point out that Argo doesn’t strictly tell the events exactly how they occurred and there are a few scenes in the movie that are purely for entertainment purposes. Well that’s what makes Argo such a great film and Ben Affleck such a great director. There are scenes in the movie that look so authentic that you could almost be mistaken in thinking you were watching a documentary yet certain scenes were clearly added for dramatic affect and contradict Mendez’s account (of which you can read in full here , seeing as the whole reason this story can be told now is that Bill Clinton declassified the mission in 1997) but it’s the job of the writer and director to tell a story that’s not only engaging, thoughtful and intriguing but also entertaining, and both Affleck and Terrio used their creativity to do exactly that.

Argo is a brilliant movie which creates a genre of its own, mixing a tense political thriller with an Ocean’s Eleven style comedy caper, but as strange as it sounds director Ben Affleck and writer Chris Terrio, along with the supporting cast of actors, make this unique combination work. The result is an inspiring and audacious story of courage, hope and creativity in the face of adversity which is told with flair, style and humour. Argo (2012) Cast and Crew, Trivia, Quotes, Photos, News and Videos - FamousFix Photo Credit: bakerboy Argo is a 2012 American political thriller film directed by Ben Affleck . The film is adapted from U.S. Central Intelligence Agency operative Tony Mendez 's book The Master of Disguise and Joshuah Bearman 's 2007 Wired article "The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran." The latter deals with the " Canadian Caper ," in which Mendez led the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran , Iran, during the 1979–1981 Iran hostage crisis .

Wikipedia Contents From this profile you will find 16 photos , 77 quotes , 37 trivia items , 2 magazines , 94 lists , 6 songs , 139 awards , 512 news stories , and key facts about Argo! Related Lists Ben Affleck Discusses Directing ‘Argo,’ His Third Film - The New York Times The New York Times Movies |Facing the Camera and Commanding It Search Continue reading the main story Photo Ben Affleck directed and stars in “Argo.” Mr. Affleck (with beard) on the set with the cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto. Credit Claire Folger/Warner Brothers Pictures Beverly Hills, Calif. BEFORE Ben Affleck began shooting “The Town,” his 2010 hit about Boston bank robbers, he made a series of phone calls. Kevin Costner. Robert Redford. Warren Beatty. All three had directed movies in which they also starred, and Mr. Affleck, about to do likewise, wanted tips. “The one thing they all said to me, in one form or another, was: Make sure you get enough coverage of yourself,” he recalled, referring to the number of takes of his own performance.

“They said the natural tendency is to go do a scene, and there’s three of us, and I do 10 takes on actor A and 12 takes on actor B and now we’re probably in a rush, so the polite thing to do is bang out one take on yourself and move on. Because you don’t want to look like a prima donna.” He risked looking like a prima donna. “And on the first day, on Take 10 of me, I could just feel the crew’s eyes rolling,” he said. “I started telling anybody who would listen that story,” about the Costner-Redford-Beatty advice. He wasn’t being vain, he swore to them. Just obedient. Really. “I was told to get a lot of coverage.” Continue reading the main story He laughed as he recounted this, because he was finally far enough past his self-consciousness and jitters to be able to. “My first two movies were agony,” he confessed, referring to “The Town” and “Gone Baby Gone,” his 2007 debut as a director, in which he did not appear. “I was terrified.” Photo Ben Affleck Credit Kevin Scanlon for The New York Times And his third?

Called “Argo,” it opens next month, and it explores a little-known footnote to the Iranian hostage crisis, which began in 1979 and lasted more than a year. Mr. Affleck not only directed it but also plays the lead role of a C.I.A. “exfiltration” expert who posed as the producer of a nonexistent science-fiction movie in order to get into Tehran and try to rescue six Americans hiding in the home of the Canadian ambassador. It combines comedy, drama and high-stakes politics, and required shooting in Los Angeles, Washington and Istanbul. None of that daunted him. “I really had a strong idea about how I was going to do it,” Mr. Affleck said, sitting on a patio outside the Four Seasons Hotel here one day last month. “Gone Baby Gone” had received admiring reviews. “The Town” had earned even better ones. And somewhere along the way Mr. Affleck had picked up a crucial measure of confidence. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In “Argo” it shows.

Many who have seen the movie consider it the best of his three directing efforts, the one that will make him as prominent a Hollywood player behind the camera as in front of it, the one that will move him forevermore beyond his seemingly playboy past. Remember the engagement to Jennifer Lopez? And their on-screen magic in “Gigli”? Next year is the 10th anniversary of its release. Don’t expect a special Blu-ray edition. Since “Gigli” Mr. Affleck actually tied the knot with a different Jennifer, surname of Garner. They’ve been married more than seven years and had their third child in February. And two days before the interview for this article, he turned 40. How did he mark it? “I wept and gnashed my teeth,” he said, kidding. “We had dinner at the house.” It was a quiet evening, with just a few couples, including Matt Damon and his wife, joining him and Ms. Garner for a meal of — he couldn’t remember. Took out his mobile phone. Checked with the wife. “Truffle fries,” he said, repeating what Ms. Garner was telling him. “T-bone. Fresh shrimp from Santa Barbara.” A kale salad.

A mixed-berry crumble. “Thanks, honey. I love you.” Photo Mr. Affleck standing in a scene in “Argo.” Credit Claire Folger/Warner Brothers Pictures All settled down, all grown up, Mr. Affleck now has subtle flecks of silver in his hair, an unsubtle tone of contentment in his voice and a relaxed air. He’s quick with jokes and lavish with self-deprecation, as when the subject of his performance 15 years ago in the movie “Chasing Amy” came up. “I was supposed to kiss Jason Lee,” he recalled, referring to a pivotal scene. And he had heard peers say that “you were a really great actor if you could convincingly play homosexual as a man,” he continued. “And I just blew it. The kiss is in there, but it looks like Tom & Jerry. It’s not anything good.” Open-mouthed? “I tried to go open-mouthed,” he said. “But something in me was, ‘Take your tongue back.’ And I was like, ‘No, you can do it! Push!’ It was not my proudest moment.” The kiss was on his mind, he said, because Mr.

Damon was working on an HBO movie about the pianist Liberace — he plays Liberace’s boyfriend, while Michael Douglas plays Liberace — and had recently talked to Mr. Affleck about it. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “Matt’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to make out with Michael Douglas tomorrow,’ and it triggered that memory,” Mr. Affleck said, adding that he later watched the moment of Mr. Damon’s big lip lock. “Not that it would be hard to be better than my kiss, but it was much better than my kiss. Maybe Michael Douglas is sexier than Jason Lee.” Matt and Ben: competitive kissers, lifelong friends from Cambridge, Mass., and the toast of Hollywood in the late 1990s, when they won the Oscar for their screenplay for “Good Will Hunting.” Mr. Damon went on to star in many hits, including the Bourne movies. Mr. Affleck went on to star in many hits, then many duds. For a while he was paparazzi chum and box-office arsenic.

A headline in The Onion from that period summed up his slump: “Ben Affleck Hoping Jason Bourne Has Sidekick in Next Movie.” Photo Ben Affleck (in hat) with his brother Casey on the set of “Gone Baby Gone.” Credit Claire Folger/Miramax Films “He was just getting kicked in the teeth,” Mr. Damon said in a recent phone interview. So Mr. Affleck decided to show Hollywood a different, less kickable face. He helped write a screen adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel “Gone, Baby, Gone,” about a little girl’s mysterious disappearance; persuaded studio executives to let him direct it; and headed to Boston to shoot it on a relatively modest budget of about $19 million with his brother Casey in the lead role of a dogged private detective. From his time on movie sets, “I knew how the sausage was made,” he said. “Whether I could make a good sausage, I didn’t know. But I knew how to get into the sausage factory and stuff intestines.” Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy Mr. Damon said that Mr.

Affleck had been directing, at least in his head, since their teenage years, when he would emerge from a movie they had just seen and instantly tick off ways it could have been improved. “He’s really, really good at doing that,” Mr. Damon said. “ ‘The Town,’ for instance, was a script that was around. I read it. It got sent to me. And I dismissed it out of hand.” When he later learned that Mr. Affleck had taken on the project, “I called him and said: ‘Are you out of your mind? The script isn’t good.’ And he said, ‘No, no, here are the six things I’m going to do.’ ” Mr. Affleck worked on the screenplay, ultimately receiving partial credit for it, as well as directing the movie. For his next directing project he was determined to do something set far from where he grew up, with a broader canvas. The “Argo” script, by Chris Terrio, fit that bill, and didn’t need much tinkering. It also had a leading role for Mr. Affleck, a way not to disappear as an actor while he made the much longer time commitment that directing requires.

Part of the story sends up Hollywood and its hucksters, two of whom, played by John Goodman and Alan Arkin, agree to help the United States government set up a fake production of the nonexistent science-fiction movie, titled “Argo.” Photo From left, Mr. Affleck, Slaine, Jeremy Renner and Owen Burke in "The Town," directed by Mr. Affleck. Credit Claire Folger/Warner Brothers Pictures But the heart of the action is set in Tehran, where the lives of six Americans are on the line. Mr. Affleck’s character, Tony Mendez, travels there to coach them on new, fictive identities, in the hope that they will be able to pass themselves off as a movie crew scouting locations and to leave Iran that way. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In the original screenplay Mendez was “an older guy who was really on the outs,” said Grant Heslov, a producer of the real “Argo.” He said that had to change when Mr.

Affleck signed on, “because the thing about Ben is he’s handsome,” adding, “He doesn’t look like a guy who’s struggling.” Instead the movie puts extra emphasis on the character’s estrangement from his wife and distance from his young son, and it becomes, in some ways, an allegory of fatherhood, with Mendez acting as a parent to the stranded, terrified Americans. He has to “create boundaries and limits and a whole world and then say, ‘I’m going to keep you safe, and I’m going to get you home,’ ” said Mr. Affleck, who worries about the welfare of his own children in the fishbowl of Hollywood. “This business can be ugly, and I used to think the biggest challenge was keeping sane. But the biggest challenge for me now is figuring out how to raise my kids in this environment.” He has roles in two movies — a thriller, “Runner, Runner,” and a romantic drama, “To the Wonder,” directed by Terrence Malick — that have been shot but not released. He wants to continue directing too, but the project must be right.

Turning 40, he said, made him wonder: “Is that halfway?” “It’s a zero-sum game,” he said. “You have from now until the end. And if you take a year to do one thing, it’s a year you no longer have to do something else.” A version of this article appears in print on September 9, 2012, on Page AR44 of the New York edition with the headline: Facing the Camera And Commanding It. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Download YIFY Movies Directed by Ben Affleck via YIFY Torrent YIFY Movies Directed by Ben Affleck Ben Affleck Ben Affleck, Actor: Argo. Benjamin Geza Affleck was born on August 15, 1972 in Berkeley, California, USA, and was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. His father, Tim Affleck, is a social worker, and his mother, Chris Affleck (née Boldt), is a school teacher; the two are now divorced. Ben also has a younger brother, actor Casey Affleck, who was born in 1975. Ben wanted to be an actor ever since he could remember and ...

Question: The 2012 film "Argo" was directed by which US-born actor?
Answer: Ben Affleck